Online User Reviews as a Design Strategy for Global Communities: Contributions of the Open Device Labs Case

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v13i11.11042

Keywords:

global grass-roots community movement, Open Device Lab, online user review, service user experience evaluation

Abstract


Grass-roots community movements related to design practices and open spaces have emerged to address different issues. This study is part of a comprehensive research, which aims to explain the Open Device Labs (ODLs) ecosystem. The ODLs are a grass-roots community movement that aims to democratize cross-platform tests and evaluation on real devices. As a global community with 152 laboratories located in 35 countries, online user reviews play an essential role in helping the long-term prospects of the movement. From the Design perspective, this paper aims to answer the question: what can be learned about the ODL ecosystem from online user reviews? To answer this research question, we conducted a qualitative inductive analysis of n=217 user reviews posted on the community website, from 65 labs located in 12 countries. The results and categories presented here are a key contribution to understanding the ODL ecosystem, and ultimately to other global service communities.

Author Biographies

Raquel Paiva Godinho, IF Sul-rio-grandense

Raquel Paiva Godinho is a tenured lecturer and researcher at the Design Department, Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology Sul-rio-grandense (IFSul), Brazil. Currently, she is a member of the Balmes Foundation team involved in an H2020 project, and a Ph.D. candidate in Experimental Science and Technology at the University of Vic-Central of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), Spain. Her current research interests include design and collaborative practices.

Ruth S. Contreras Espinosa, University of Vic-Central of Catalonia (UVic-UCC)

Dr Ruth Sofia Contreras Espinosa is a Professor at the Faculty of Business and Communication, University of Vic-Central of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), Spain and a Project Manager in H2020 European projects. She is also the coordinator of Observatory of Communication, Video Games and Entertainment (OCVE), InCom-UAB-UVIC. Her current research interests include game studies, game user experience and game user research.

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Published

2019-11-15

How to Cite

Godinho, R. P., & Espinosa, R. S. C. (2019). Online User Reviews as a Design Strategy for Global Communities: Contributions of the Open Device Labs Case. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM), 13(11), pp. 70–84. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v13i11.11042

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 11 (2019)

Section

Papers

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